Sri Lanka declared curfew in an area with a concentration of returnees from Italy, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered asked banks to give credit relief to businesses hit by coronavirus and suspended foreign arrivals from March 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India and Bangladesh have given a new dimension and direction to their partnership due to growing trust between the two nations.  India and Bangladesh “have a golden chapter of bilateral ties,” he said

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged to make Bangladesh a land of gold (Sonar Bangla) as the country celebrated the birth centenary of its founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, amidst public health scare over COVID-19 pandemic

As a country which did not go through a lock-down even during the 30-year war, there is no need to do so now in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, said Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He said while the other countries had recorded a large number of deaths in the wake of the COVID-19 infection, Sri Lanka had managed to mitigate such a situation

The Maldivian government has announced that they will arrange a loan facility for the fisheries sector to ease the challenges faced by the sector due to COVID-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to be commended for taking the initiative in enabling a cyber SAARC summit on Sunday (March 15) to deal with the growing COVID 19 challenge. Leaders of all the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries, barring Pakistan, which was represented by an official,  were linked through video and the deliberations indicated high-level political resolve to deal with this pandemic

Over 25,782 foreigners from minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh entered India between 2015 and 2019, and they are authorised to get Indian citizenship as per the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

Prime Minister Imran Khan asked Pakistanis to prepare for a coronavirus epidemic in the country but ruled out locking down cities to fight the disease

All travellers, including Bhutanese, coming to Bhutan will be quarantined in a designated quarantine facility for two weeks. However, minors below 18 years would be sent for home quarantine. Health minister Dechen Wangmo, announced this during the press briefing on COVID-19 Tuesday

India excoriated China and Pakistan for reference to Jammu and Kashmir in a joint statement released by them and said it expects other countries not to comment on its internal matters and respect its sovereignty

Seema Verma, a top Indian American official, is leading a major US push for a path-breaking telemedicine initiative using laptops and phones and apps like Skype to ease the burden of growing coronavirus cases and the threat of infections

The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised India for its efforts to fight against the novel coronavirus, which has killed and infected thousands in more than 100 countries across the world

India will provide 107.01 million Nepali Rupees for the construction of three new school buildings. These schools will be built in Darchula, Dhanusha and Kapilvastu districts. The MoU was signed on March 16, 2020 in Kathmandu between the bodies of India, Nepal and allied districts

The coronavirus outbreak is yet to significantly impact international trade along India’s land border. However, passenger movement is  down at most border gates following an embargo on the fresh issue of visas

The Indian government, in a point-by-point response to the criticism against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said India is constitutionally secular, and also told the Supreme Court that the CAA does not violate any fundamental right provisions of the Constitution